When You're Gone
by starhunni
Summary: Jess and Rory have a lot in common, like the fact that they both have significant others. However, a few drinks and a few words lead to some regrets, and Rory doesn't know how to tell Jess, worst of all, tragedy is ready to tear them apart.


It was two years ago today that Jess had first come to town. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I remembered how people talked about it for days! Spread rumours that he had gone to jail three times before this, I believed it at the time, but I know now how wrong they were. Yes, he had gotten in trouble with law, but he had never been to jail – or juvi – or anywhere else. But when he had come to town, nobody knew why he was here. I remember how Luke – my mom's friend – was so angry that his sister had sent this kid to him (Jess was Luke's nephew). When the cops pulled up to Luke's diner he didn't know what was going to happen.

Jess stepped out of the car and I saw Luke's face tense, I was there, watching the whole thing play out. Jess was wearing a leather jacket and he had an angry, hard face. He obviously didn't want him to be here, and I could tell from Luke's face that he didn't want him to be here either.

I got up and paid my bill, not wanting to be anywhere near any arguments that might happen on this night and walked home, ready to tell my mother about the news.

Of course she knew already, everybody knew about Jess Mariano's arrival, but most of them had no clue that he had been brought here in a cop car. I told her that and she nearly fainted. She feared that he would bring trouble into the little town of Stars Hollow, trouble that nobody really wanted, however, it would certainly spice things up a bit.

"Luke and his nephew are coming over for dinner, Sookie's cooking. Get ready, they'll be here in about an hour," my mom, Lorelai, told me as I walked into the house after school on Tuesday.

"Ok," I replied, heading into my room. I wondered why Lorelai was inviting them, I knew she didn't think Jess was that great of a kid, but maybe she wanted to get to know him. After all, when you live in a small town like Stars Hollow, you're bound to have to talk to people once in a while.

"Rory, they're here," she said and I turned around and saw the boy who's face I recognized only because of the brief viewing when he arrived. I was in my room, sitting at my laptop, finishing up a report for school.

"Hey," I called and Jess took a step into my room.

"Hey," he said casually as he looked around.

"I'm Rory," I stated and he nodded.

"Yeah I figured." He continued to walk into my room, keeping his eyes on me.

"Nice to meet you," I said, being friendly, which wasn't too hard for me. He seemed nice enough.

He didn't reply, he had noticed my bookcase. "Wow, aren't we hooked on phonics," he stated and I stood up.

"Yeah I read a lot. Do you read?" I asked, wanting to get to know him better.

He picked up a book. "Not much," he said, glancing at me and then looking back at the book.

"I could lend you that if you want. It's great," I offered, still trying to be friendly.

He set it down on my dresser. "No thanks," he said looking back at me.

"Well if you change your mind…" I said, trying to keep the conversation going.

My mom poked her head in, informing us that they were making their way into the living room.

"Be right there," I called as Jess pulled back the drapes on my window.

"Do these open?" He asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, you just have to unlatch them and then push."

"Great," he said, getting ready to get them open. "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?"

"Bail," he said simply.

"Uh… no," I said, finding it hard to believe that he was seriously asking me to ditch a dinner that my mother had worked hard to make happen.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because it's Tuesday night in Stars Hollow. There's nowhere to bail to. The twenty-four hour mini mart just closed twenty minutes ago."

"Then we'll walk around, or sit on a park bench and stare at our shoes." He was obviously desperate to get out.

"Look, Sookie just made a ton of great food and I'm starving and I know it may not seem like it right now, it's going to be fun. Trust me," I said, not able to help but smile at his attempts to get out of the house.

"I don't even know you."  
"Don't I look trustworthy?"

"Maybe…"

"Ok good, let's eat," I said happily, heading out of my room and into the living room.

That was our first meeting, the first conversation Jess Mariano and I had ever had. It was an interesting one, but as time progressed and we came to know each other better, it got more interesting. We had quite a few conversations about books. The second conversation we had was about books.

I was coming out of the bookstore and Jess was coming in the other direction. He walked up to me and began walking with me.

"Hey," he said and I looked up.

"Hey yourself," I replied.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, continuing to walk beside me.

"I needed something for school. What about you?" I replied.

"Oh yeah, same thing," he said, but I could tell he was lying.

Our conversation continued, small talk, not very interesting. We talked about how he had bailed on the dinner and talked about magic. I told him that if he ever wanted to speak to me again that he would not pull the coin he had made disappear out of my ear. Then he handed me the book he had been looking at the other night.

"You bought a copy? I told you I'd lend you mine," I said, looking at the book and then back at him.

"It is yours," he said.

"You stole my book!" I replied, amazed that he would actually do that.

"Nope, borrowed," he corrected.

"Ok, that's not called a trick. That's called a felony."

"I just wanted to put some notes in the margins."

"What?" I asked, taking my book from him and flipping it to one of the pages. "You've read this before…" I said, still looking at the book.

"About 40 times," he responded, putting his hands in his pockets.

"But I thought you said you didn't read much."

"Well… what is much?"

I looked at him, not able to hide the smile that was now on my face.

"Night, Rory." He began walking away and I called to him.

"Night, Dodger," I said, not taking my eyes off the book.

"Dodger?" He asked, turning around and looking at me.

"Figure it out," I called, a faint smile appearing on my face as I began to back away. I started walking away and he called after me.

"Oliver Twist," he finally called and I just nodded. I knew now that Jess and I had more in common then I had ever imagined.

Days, weeks and months passed, Jess and I were close. Sure, I got mad at him… a lot, but we had a type of relationship that nothing could break, not even my boyfriend, nor his girlfriend.  
The day I figured out how I really felt about Jess was the day all hell broke out.

It was the night of the 24-hour dance contest. I was there with my mom, but Dean – my boyfriend – was filling in for her when she had to go somewhere.

Jess was there with Shane – his girlfriend – but the whole night he did nothing but stare at me, and it was getting on my nerves.

"You got a problem here?" Jess asked after he heard me talking to Dean about how annoyed I was with him and Shane.

"Nope, just a little sick of seeing you two sitting there. If your not going to participate why don't you just leave?" I answered angrily.

"Works for me, let's go," Shane said but Jess wouldn't let her.

"No."

"Why not?" I asked, getting more and more irritated with every word Jess said.

" 'Cause I'm not ready to go."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really. I'm gonna sit here as long as I like and I'm gonna do whatever I like and if you don't like it then just ignore me and pay attention to your boyfriend," he said, leaning back on the bleachers.

"Sorry, she can't. I'm not her boyfriend anymore," Dean said, stepping away from me.

I felt as if I had just been slapped in the face, I couldn't believe the words that had just been said. "What?" I asked in disbelief.

Jess sat up, obviously interested to hear me get dumped.

"You know, I tried to ignore this. I really did, but… I don't know what the hell I was thinking," Dean said, looking at me with a look on his face that said, "I must've been crazy to stick around for as long as I did."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, not able to comprehend exactly what was happening.

"You don't want to be with me, Rory!"

"Yes I do," I replied, trying to make him believe me.

"Oh please. You've been into him since he got to town. And I've spent weeks – months actually – trying to convince myself it wasn't true, that everything was fine between us. But now I know that I was an idiot."

I looked around, at all the faces that were now staring at the two of us. I couldn't believe he was doing this, in front of everybody.

"You're into him, and he's into you and Shane – who should be listening to this by the way, 'cause it's so damn obvious!" He yelled.

"What's obvious? What did I do?" I asked, feeling like a puppy that was just getting written off, sold. I felt unwanted, like Dean didn't care about me and I deserved it.

"Everyone can see, Rory, everyone! And I'm tired. But I'm over it, so go ahead, go. Be together. Nothing's standing in your way now, 'cause I'm out." He said and with that he walked off, no words were said from Jess, or me anymore. I just knew I had to get out of there.


End file.
